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by vorpalhex 1356 days ago
"Hey why are my torrent downloads running super slow?"

"Oh, well, your torrent client decided to automatically use your vpn because it saw one running and somebody decided that was the right behavior because they thought you were dumb."

Users have preferences. Users can read. Let them learn and sort it out. Don't ruin a simple program with tarred assumptions of what is correct for users. Prefer simplicity.

Also don't assume using a vpn is more secure. That is a wrong assumption.
3 comments
ByThyGrace 1356 days ago
I don't have a horse in this race, but I think you're presuming simplicity where there is none.

A bittorrent client, even in CLI form, is not simple software at all. Have you ever taken a look at the myriad of available settings?

Most GUI clients have a sort of "wizard" that helps you pick acceptable connection parameters. This feature alone has a truckload of assumptions coded in. And that kind of feature exists for a reason: no nonsense-seeking users. They're the majority. Just let me download my file bro.

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newaccount74 1356 days ago
It also makes sense that the developer chooses parameters. They are probably the person with the most detailed knowledge of the problem, they are probably the person who knows best what the parameters should be.

It baffles my mind when developers just expect users to tweak low level settings. Sure, it's good if stuff is configurable, but it should work correctly out of the box. Like, you spent days or weeks working on this feature, don't expect your users to do the same...

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CharlesW 1356 days ago
Yes, I agree that your assumptions about how you think I think this should work are bad. :^)

But to be more specific with my feedback, it seems a bit silly that Transmission (I'm trying 4.0.0b1 right now) doesn't allow me to specify that it must use "VPN X" (as opposed to "VPN Y", which is also available) for downloads.

I understand that I could mess with namespaces or containers or VMs and probably make that work, but "use Bittorrent client with VPN" is more or less a universal use case and should be straightforward.

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prange 1355 days ago
> Also don't assume using a vpn is more secure. That is a wrong assumption.

I agree with this statement, but what should a user ‘read’ in order to understand this?

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